The cut will drop the annual legislator salary from $116,208 to $95,291, the Bee reported.

But today the commission voted 5-1 to make a deeper reduction in elected officials' salaries because of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's announced plans to lay off 5,000 state workers.

They also said they were influenced by voters' overwhelming approval of Proposition 1F - a ballot measure that will ban increases in lawmaker salaries - in any budget deficit year.

"This is not an issue that's punitive. If we're laying off 5,000 employees, we'll be laying off more. There will have to be some concessions made if we're going to make it through this," board member John Stites told the newspaper.